EC: Apple claimed Motorola demanded ALL ITS PATENTS

Motorola Mobility said it would only hand over licences for its standards-essential patents to Apple if the fruity firm licensed all of its patent portfolio in return, Apple apparently revealed to the European Commission.

Eagle-eyed Reg readers pointed out that in the European Commission's report [PDF, relevant information is on page 32] on its decision to allow the Google-Motorola Mobility merger, the EC outed Apple's claims about Motorola's naughtiness in its argument that joining Google to Motorola wouldn't result in extra litigation - because Motorola already had lots of court cases ongoing.

"In this context it must be noted that those proceedings were instigated by Motorola Mobility prior to this transaction taking place," the EC report said.

"For instance, according to Apple, Motorola Mobility has insisted that Apple cross-licenses its full non-SEP portfolio in exchange for Motorola Mobility's SEPs. Apple also argues that its refusal to accede to this demand led Motorola Mobility to sue Apple in an attempt to exclude Apple's products from the market.

"On the terms of Apple's own argument, Motorola Mobility's allegedly anti-competitive behaviour in this regard well precedes the merger at issue in the present decision," it added.

It was already known that Apple had made a complaint to the European Commission back in February about Motorola's use of standards-essential patents (SEP) in lawsuits against the firm, although there were no details about the substance of the whinge.

SEP can be given to firms in cross-licensing deals that give the SEP-holder the licence for other patents, but often these are also standards-essential.

In addition, asking for Apple's entire patent portfolio would be exceedingly greedy of Motorola given the wide range of devices and softwares that the fruity firm holds patents for, including desktop PCs and operating systems as well as mobile devices.

If Motorola actually asked for both, it's either insanely greedy, living in a dream world where major tech firms like Apple do whatever they're told, or these are snippets of negotiation stances designed to p*** Cupertino off.

Apple declined to comment and Motorola had not returned a request for comment at the time of publication. ®